Evaluation of a Local Jail Training Program in Sacramento County, California, 1994-1995 (ICPSR 2582)

This data collection represents a process and outcome
evaluation of the Office Technology Training program at the Rio
Consumnes Correctional Center (RCCC) in Sacramento County. RCCC is a
county jail for prisoners sentenced up to one year in custody. The
Office Technology Training program, one of several training programs
for inmates at RCCC, was designed to familiarize students with the use
of computers in an office or business setting and to provide specific
instruction in several types of common office software, including word
processing and desktop publishing. The purpose of the evaluation
research was (1) to refine the process of determining what types of
training should be funded and (2) to establish research-based
evaluation protocols for local jail inmate training programs. Data
were collected on participants in the Office Technology Training
class, on a control group that matched the participants in terms of
demographic characteristics, and on a smaller group of nonparticipants
who had signed up for the training program but did not
participate. Part 1, Treatment and Control Group Data, contains
administrative and survey data on both the trainees and the control
group, while Part 2, Nonparticipant Data, includes administrative and
survey data on the inmates who registered for the training but did not
participate in the program. The survey consisted of an evaluation form
filled out by inmates who participated in the training at RCCC,
indicating their prior experience with computers and software,
evaluating the training they received, and assessing whether the new
skills would be helpful in securing employment upon their
release. Administrative records on all respondents (trainees, control,
and nonparticipants) were collected from four sources: a supplemental
form on inmates' employment, a probation report that provided personal
and criminal histories, a risk assessment form, and a follow-up form
completed by the probation officer within one week of the six-month
anniversary of the inmate's release from RCCC. Variables from the
supplemental form included employment type and wages. The probation
report covered employment, education, military history, marital
status, substance abuse, domestic violence, gang behavior, psychiatric
history, child abuse history, and criminal histories as juveniles and
adults. Data on attitude, alcohol and drug problems, number of felony
convictions, probation periods and violations, types of offenses, and
history of institutionalization were taken from the risk assessment
form. The follow-up form gathered information on release, disciplinary
actions at RCCC, opinions about the Office Technology Training
program, substance abuse, new arrests and convictions, gang behavior,
job training, employment type, hourly wage, job satisfaction, and use
of computers on the job. Additional administrative records data on
trainees and nonparticipants were gathered from the class registration
form, including gender, education, birth date, ethnicity, language
spoken, occupation, Test of Adult Basic Education (TABE) scores, and
class assignments. Other data on trainees came from an evaluation
form filled out by the students' instructor upon their completion of the
Office Technology class. It provided information on the behavior,
attitude, and skills of the students.

This data collection represents a process and outcome
evaluation of the Office Technology Training program at the Rio
Consumnes Correctional Center (RCCC) in Sacramento County. RCCC is a
county jail for prisoners sentenced up to one year in custody. The
Office Technology Training program, one of several training programs
for inmates at RCCC, was designed to familiarize students with the use
of computers in an office or business setting and to provide specific
instruction in several types of common office software, including word
processing and desktop publishing. The purpose of the evaluation
research was (1) to refine the process of determining what types of
training should be funded and (2) to establish research-based
evaluation protocols for local jail inmate training programs. Data
were collected on participants in the Office Technology Training
class, on a control group that matched the participants in terms of
demographic characteristics, and on a smaller group of nonparticipants
who had signed up for the training program but did not
participate. Part 1, Treatment and Control Group Data, contains
administrative and survey data on both the trainees and the control
group, while Part 2, Nonparticipant Data, includes administrative and
survey data on the inmates who registered for the training but did not
participate in the program. The survey consisted of an evaluation form
filled out by inmates who participated in the training at RCCC,
indicating their prior experience with computers and software,
evaluating the training they received, and assessing whether the new
skills would be helpful in securing employment upon their
release. Administrative records on all respondents (trainees, control,
and nonparticipants) were collected from four sources: a supplemental
form on inmates' employment, a probation report that provided personal
and criminal histories, a risk assessment form, and a follow-up form
completed by the probation officer within one week of the six-month
anniversary of the inmate's release from RCCC. Variables from the
supplemental form included employment type and wages. The probation
report covered employment, education, military history, marital
status, substance abuse, domestic violence, gang behavior, psychiatric
history, child abuse history, and criminal histories as juveniles and
adults. Data on attitude, alcohol and drug problems, number of felony
convictions, probation periods and violations, types of offenses, and
history of institutionalization were taken from the risk assessment
form. The follow-up form gathered information on release, disciplinary
actions at RCCC, opinions about the Office Technology Training
program, substance abuse, new arrests and convictions, gang behavior,
job training, employment type, hourly wage, job satisfaction, and use
of computers on the job. Additional administrative records data on
trainees and nonparticipants were gathered from the class registration
form, including gender, education, birth date, ethnicity, language
spoken, occupation, Test of Adult Basic Education (TABE) scores, and
class assignments. Other data on trainees came from an evaluation
form filled out by the students' instructor upon their completion of the
Office Technology class. It provided information on the behavior,
attitude, and skills of the students.

Access Notes

The public-use data files in this collection are available for access by the general public.
Access does not require affiliation with an ICPSR member institution.

Study Description

Citation

McConnell, Thomas. Evaluation of a Local Jail Training Program in Sacramento County, California, 1994-1995. ICPSR02582-v1. Ann Arbor, MI: Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research [distributor], 2000. https://doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR02582.v1

Universe:
All minimum security housing inmates at the Rio Consumnes
Correctional Center in Sacramento County, California, in 1994.

Data Type(s):
administrative records data,
survey data

Methodology

Study Purpose:
In October 1993, the California Board of
Corrections and the federal National Institute of Justice (NIJ)
entered into a cooperative agreement under NIJ's "State Evaluation
Capacity Building Program" initiative. Under this initiative, the
Board of Corrections proposed to conduct process and outcome
evaluations of jail inmate training programs. The proposal resulted
from the Board of Correction's newly-acquired responsibility to
disseminate federal Perkins Act funds to local jurisdictions in
California. The Perkins Act was established to fund local jail inmate
training operations. The purpose of the evaluation research was (1) to
refine the process of determining what types of training should be
funded and (2) to establish research-based evaluation protocols for
local jail inmate training programs. Researchers chose to evaluate the
Office Technology Training program at the Rio Consumnes Correctional
Center (RCCC) in Sacramento County. Researchers sought to answer the
following questions: (1) To what extent do inmates who achieve a
certificate of completion in at least one component of Office
Technology Training differ in their institutional adjustment and
post-release behavior from inmates who choose no training? (2) Does
the training group achieve better results than the control group in
the post-release setting with respect to institutional adjustment,
employment, and legal behavior?

Study Design:
This project was designed as a process and outcome
evaluation of job training programs for jail inmates in
California. The first step was to decide which programs to
evaluate. At the time the project began, the California Board of
Corrections had funded three training programs. After an initial
assessment of these programs, two of the three were disqualified for
evaluation because: (1) the goals of the training program were not
specifically stated, (2) class attendance was not recorded, (3) there
was no tracking system for the inmates participating in the training,
which inhibited the ability to monitor post-release status, and (4) it
was difficult to obtain a reasonable control group. The result of the
initial assessment was that the Rio Consumnes Correctional Center
(RCCC), run by the Sacramento County Sheriff's Department, was the
only feasible evaluation site. RCCC is a county jail for prisoners
sentenced up to one year in custody. The training program at RCCC was
operated by the Elk Grove Unified School District. While RCCC had
several training programs, the one chosen for evaluation was the
Office Technology Training program. This program was designed to
familiarize students with the use of computers in an office or
business setting and to provide specific instruction in several types
of common office software, including word processing and desktop
publishing. The program evaluation was conducted using administrative
records data and a survey of program participants. Inmates who
participated in the training at RCCC were asked to fill out an
evaluation form indicating their prior experience with computers and
software, evaluating the training they received, and assessing whether
the new skills would be helpful in securing employment upon their
release. Data were collected from participants of the Office
Technology Training class, a control group that matched the
participants in terms of demographic characteristics, and a smaller
group of nonparticipants who had signed up for the training program
but did not participate. Part 1, Treatment and Control Group Data,
contains administrative and survey data on both the trainees and the
control group, while Part 2, Nonparticipant Data, includes
administrative and survey data on the inmates who registered for the
training but did not participate in the program. Administrative
records on all inmates (trainees, control, and nonparticipants) were
collected from a supplemental form on inmates' employment, a probation
report that provided personal and criminal histories, a risk
assessment form, and a follow-up form completed by the probation
officer within one week of the six-month anniversary of the inmate's
release from RCCC. Additional administrative records data on trainees
and nonparticipants were gathered from the class registration form,
while other data on trainees came from an evaluation form completed by
the students' instructor upon completion of the Office Technology
class.

Sample:
Convenience sampling.

Data Source:

self-enumerated questionnaires and administrative
records

Description of Variables:
Variables from the class registration form included
gender, education, birth date, ethnicity, language spoken, occupation,
Test of Adult Basic Education (TABE) scores, and class
assignments. The instructor's evaluation form provided information on
the behavior, attitude, and skills of the students. Variables from the
supplemental form included employment type and wages. The study
evaluation form gathered information on previous computer training and
students' evaluations of the Office Technology class. The probation
report covered employment, education, military history, marital
status, substance abuse, domestic violence, gang behavior, psychiatric
history, child abuse history, and criminal histories as juveniles and
adults. Data on attitude, alcohol and drug problems, number of felony
convictions, probation periods and violations, types of offenses, and
history of institutionalization were taken from the risk assessment
form. The follow-up form gathered information on release, disciplinary
actions at RCCC, opinions about the Office Technology Training
program, substance abuse, new arrests and convictions, gang behavior,
job training, employment type, hourly wage, job satisfaction, and use
of computers on the job.

Response Rates:
Not applicable.

Presence of Common Scales:
Several Likert-type scales were used, as well as the
Test for Adult Basic Education (TABE).

Extent of Processing: ICPSR data undergo a confidentiality review and are altered when necessary to limit the risk of
disclosure. ICPSR also routinely creates ready-to-go data files along with setups in the major
statistical software formats as well as standard codebooks to accompany the data. In addition to
these procedures, ICPSR performed the following processing steps for this data collection:

Performed recodes and/or calculated derived variables.

Version(s)

Original ICPSR Release: 2000-07-27

Version History:

2006-01-18 File CB2582.ALL.PDF was removed from any previous datasets and flagged as a study-level file, so that it will accompany all downloads.